2023 AMC 10B Problem 23

Attempt Problem 23 of the 2023 AMC 10B below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2023 AMC 10B solutions, or check the answer key.

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23.

An arithmetic sequence of positive integers has n>3n \gt 3 terms, initial term a,a, and common difference d>1.d \gt 1. Carl wrote down all the terms in this sequence correctly except for one term, which was off by 1.1. The sum of the terms he wrote down was 222.222. What is a+d+n?a + d + n?

2424

2020

2222

2828

2626

Answer: B
Concepts:arithmetic sequenceDiophantine Equationprime factorization
Difficulty rating: 2380
Solution:

The true sum is S=na+n(n1)2d.S = na + \frac{n(n-1)}{2}d. Since one term is off by 1,1, the written total satisfies 222=S±1,222 = S \pm 1, so S=221S = 221 or 223.223. Also 2S=n(2a+(n1)d),2S = n\bigl(2a + (n-1)d\bigr), so nn divides 2S.2S. Since a1a \ge 1 and d2,d \ge 2, we have 2S2n2,2S \ge 2n^2, hence n2S.n^2 \le S. For S=223,S = 223, no divisor of 446446 lies between 33 and 223.\sqrt{223}. For S=221=1317,S = 221 = 13 \cdot 17, the only divisor of 442442 in this range is n=13.n = 13. Thus 2a+12d=34,2a + 12d = 34, or a+6d=17.a + 6d = 17. Since aa and dd are positive integers with d>1,d \gt 1, we get a=5,a = 5, d=2.d = 2. Then a+d+n=5+2+13=20.a + d + n = 5 + 2 + 13 = 20. Thus, B is the correct answer.

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